Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Free Chairs

I completely had a cow for Nick to stop and pick these chairs up off the curb one day last week. He thought I was a little bit crazy, but I was insistent and he obliged. I knew they would be in rough shape, otherwise someone would not have set them out with the garbage. But I'm a fairly handy chick, so I was prepared for some work. Not only would they make a cute addition to the back yard, but they'd be great for photo shoots too.

Once I got started it was pretty clear to me that I was going to have to sacrifice one chair in order to end up with anything useful at all. Both had some pretty rotten and broken pieces, along with some missing screws. I selected the healthier of the two chairs and began removing the replacement pieces from the sacrificial lamb. I initially chose three pieces that I thought were the worst, and then realized that the farther into the project I got the more pieces I was going to have to remove and replace. At some point, I went from being intrigued by the process to determined to make it work because some people might have decided it just wasn't worth the trouble. Not me. I'm stubborn, if I'm anything. Just ask Nick.

You know how sometimes you just get so invested in something, and you have to have it come out the way you know it can because you don't want to be wrong about it? I knew I couldn't just give up and admit defeat. Nick didn't see the value in my chairs, so I was determined to show it to him. Eventually, after removing and replacing and gluing and moaning and groaning a little bit, I ended up with one solid chair. Yes, I even sat in it and rocked for a little bit. Next step, paint.